Numerical Investigation of Particle Effect on Water Drop Under High Voltage Silicone Rubber Insulator

Abstract

Surface roughness due to the presence of particle settling leads to frequent discharges, flashovers on the insulator surface and reducing the breakdown voltages of the insulators, hence it is necessary to investigate the effect of the presence of particle over silicone rubber insulator. In this paper, the work has been done to investigate the electrostatic effects on the triple point junction due to the presence of the particle deposited around the water drops under high voltage stress. In this paper, four cases have been investigated from the electric field and polarization density distribution point of view. First by changing particle position, second by changing relative permittivity of the particle, third by changing the number of particles and forth by changing the particle size. All four cases have been investigated by using finite element method based software in 2D space dimension. This software is used for numerical calculation of normalized electric field and polarization density distribution. The simulation results showed that, at the triple point junction, the electric field and polarization density has been shifted from the both sides end of the drop to the left-hand side where the particle heterogeneity is present. Furthermore, the electric field and polarization density have also been increased as particle came near to water drop, as relative permittivity of the particle is increasing, the number of particles is increased and as the size of the particle is decreasing.